Why the Allies Won - Tapa dura

Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, this is more than just a history of the war - though it can be read as that too. Like John Keegan's HISTORY OF WARFARE, it goes behind the main events to explain the deeper causes of the war. What is really original is its iconoclastic view of the causes of Western victory. Overy explains the cultural, technical, military and psychological reasons for western dominance of the postwar world, while showing how close-run the race really was. It could have gone the other way.

Richard Overy is a Professor of Modern History at King's College, London, where he has taught since 1980. He has published extensively on the history of the Second World War and the Third Reich. He has been a regular consultant for television history, and was the series historian for The Road to War screened in 91989. He lives with his family in South London.